Tomsim (city)
The city of Tomsim is its nation's capital, and lives up to the expectations provided thereby. The city, much like its perennial rival Raven, is built on the mouth of a great river, and is structured around two great poles - one oriented on the magnificent palace of the national leader, the other the sprawling expanse of the dockyards and the adjacent marketplace, within which any kind of commodity, necessity or luxury can be found. Etymology The eytmology of Tomsim has been shrouded in mystery almost from the birth of the nation. Most records attribute it as the name of one of the legendary heroes of the Five Week War, although no further clarification is offered. The nature of this hero, or which feats rendered them worthy of immortality in this fashion, remain lost to the mists of time. History Following the conclusion of the Five Week War, it became necessary for a new capital to be selected. Each of the clans which had engaged in the war argued that their own city should become the capital, and that all other contenders were inferior for some reason or another. Baudouin Morel, chairman of the council, a deeply-respected priest and scholar, declared that "any vote on a new capital must be unanimous", which struck many as foolish - such bitter rivals as the Gree and the Lled would reject any proposal the other accepted. After several days of bitter wrangling, the chairman saw to it that one of his allies proposed establishing a new city on the mouth of the River Po. By secret ballot, each of the clans voted to reject the proposal, including the one that had proposed it - and Morel declared that his requirement had been met. The vote had been truly unanimous, and he had never specified that it had to be unanimous in favour. Faced with the possibility of a reawakening of the war, the clans reluctantly acquiesced. Origins Forged by cunning and deceit in the wake of the devastating Five Week War, Tomsim was, prior to selection as the new nation's capital, a tiny fishing village, barely more than two dozen households. In his History of Tomsim and Her Cities, Talfryn the Unfortunate writes: "The spot chosen was a benighted rock amid the swamp, home to less than a hundred people, all of whom wrenched their livelihoods from the unforgiving marshes. They welcomed Morel's engineers with all the fervency of a relieved garrison, accepted the generous payments he offered for their land, and moved wholesale down the coast, mostly to Whalewater. Within ten weeks, the great dike between Arnold's Point and I'lle d'Duc was completed, and Morel's wizards used powerful magics to drain the enclosed area. Upon the ground so revealed, a city was built." The section of the city referred to is now called Old Town, and despite multiple assaults and sabotages, the Great Dike has never been breached. Expansion By 550, Tomsim was straining at the borders enforced by the Great Dike and the defensive walls that were the last project of Morel. Concerned at the idea of the city spilling out onto the floodplain north of the river, a plan was devised to construct a new dike, this time enclosing a considerably larger area, stretching between Mammoth Island and I'lle d'Carousel. If successful, the new dike would more than triple the land area available for construction, safely within the defensive walls and with plenty of space for warehouses, storage yards and all the other instruments of the burgeoning sea trade. However, the cost would be considerable and labourers were few. With reputations on the line, the councilmen sent messengers to the elves, requesting wizards to aid in construction and promising great wealth in return. The elves sent a desultory delegation - one lesser conjurer and his apprentice - and the council were so offended that they refused to permit the elves to enter the city. Instead, offers were sent to the human settlements east of the Landspine, promising citizenship and land in exchange for work. Thousands of barely-civilized quasi-barbarians came over the mountains, eager to partake of the fabled wealth of Tomsim. Despite protests from some of the existing inhabitants, the newcomers were housed in government-built barracks and marshalled into construction gangs. The construction of the New Dike took over a decade, and by the time it was finished the population of Tomsim had exploded to over two hundred thousand. Interestingly, contemporary reports make it clear that the previously barbaric newcomers had assimiliated almost entirely into Tomsimite culture, establishing their own trading houses and joining the established guilds. It appears that the ability of the newcomers to both spend and make money overcame the objections of the existing inhabitants, and the integration was almost complete by the time the draining of the New Town began. However, not even New Town provided enough space, and by 1200 the city aldermen were determined to again expand the dikes. This time their plan was even more ambitious - to place a new dike directly across the Po, diverting it into a narrower, deeper channel and creating a "new city" on the south side of the new course of the river. This plan was hailed as ingenious and innovative and decried as overly complex, extortionately expensive and extravagantly unnecessary. Why, appealled the opponents of the plan, could not new dikes simply be placed between the islands on the south bank of the Po, rather than first having to prepare the vast channel that would be necessary for the diversion? Such objections fell on deaf ears. Fearing the resurgence of the barbarian clans on the far side of the Landspine - already starting to coalese into what would within a century be the Kingdom of Raven - and having more than sufficient manpower and resources, the Tomsimite council committed itself to the Sarcelle Dike, named after the engineer who had first proposed it. Over fifty thousand men were employed to dig out the Sarcelle Channel, the vast canal into which the Po would be redirected. Conditions were tough and injuries and fatalities were commonplace. Outraged at the poor treatment of their fellows, several artificers guilds came out on strike. The strikes were not tolerated. Infuriated at the defiance of apprentices and journeymen, the aldermen of the council deployed "brute squads" to break the strikes and intimidate the workers back into their workshops. It was generally successful, and while conditions in the digging project improved, over a hundred people died while thus employed. The construction of the giant earthen berm that would shoulder aside the Po and become the Sarcelle Dike only began once the canal was finished. Convinced that further industrial unrest would be injurious to the success of the project, and fearing the newly formed Ravenite Navy and their propensity for coastal raids, the city council arranged mass conscription into the dike project. Rather than the great quasi-enslaved workforce that had dug the canal, every worker in the city was expected to give one day in five to the construction of the dike. Almost immediately, a new industry was born - paying other people to work your shift on the dike. This, along with anciliary industries in bribery, work-shift futures speculation and the purchases of hulks full of slaves from Land Southward, produced a frenzy of acquisition, during which the actual construction of the dike was almost forgotten. As a project, it took almost thirty years. Indeed, it was widely accepted that the dike would never be finished until, in the summer of 1281, Ravenite corsairs launched attacks on Whalewater, Kiplinet and Canterris. Faced with these depredations, the citizenry of Tomsim seem to have concluded that preventing the Ravenite navy from having a wide estuary in which to lurk and launch raids was a very great thing, and they threw themselves into the project with unprecedented zeal. What had taken nearly thirty years was brought to completion in less than two. The redirection of the river was accomplished in the space of a day and a night, and while legends ascribe this act to mythological beings of phenomenal cosmic power, it was in all probability the work of skilled engineers and dedicated labourers. Regardless, when the Ravenite corsairs turned their eyes on Tomsim, they found the estuary of the Po almost entirely drained, and their only approach to the city to be the narrow, easily-defended channel of the Sarcelle Canal. Needless to say, they declined to press their intentions. Decline The construction of the Sarcelle Dike marks the beginning of Tomsim's golden age. With vast new tracts of land on which to build, speculators and entrepreneurs swarmed across the new course of the Po to stake claims and start construction. Within two years there were over a hundred and fifty factories south of the river, and nearly twenty thousand inhabitants. Within ten years, nearly a hundred thousand people called the South Bank home. Bridges were built and rebuilt over the river, torn down and replaced as communities vied for supremacy. By 1500, after two centuries of economic and cultural dominance, the cracks were starting to show. Even so, the decline of Tomsim took centuries. In 1605, there was a brief and deeply unfortunate flirtation with monarchy, replacing the previous system of a council of business leaders. Lockstrong the First claimed the title of "King" with the support of his council, which he then immediately disbanded. Within eighteen months he had further claimed the titles of "Emperor", "Nomarch", "Overlord", "Grand High Inquisitor" and "Manifest Divine", among over a hundred others. Formally announcing the monarch took over an hour. Lockstrong placed unprecedented taxes upon the traders of the city, including a so-called "transaction tax", amounting to one-one thousandth of the value of each trade made on the exchange floor. Arguing that no individual trader would notice such a tiny fee, but that the overall value to the city would be immense, Lockstrong planned to use the money raised to build himself a new and extravagant palace on the hills north of the city. Outraged, the traders took up arms and marched on the Old Palace. They found no-one there - the entire court had decamped to the Summer Palace, fifty miles from the city. Infuriated by this cowardice, the leader of the rebel traders set himself up as the new monarch, annoucing that by abandoning the city, Lockstrong had also abandoned his kingship. Lockstrong was not one to take such defiance lying down. Despite a degree of confusion that caused him to think that the traders so opposed to his new tax were in fact Ravenite provocateurs, Lockstrong carried out an effective counter-insurgency, deploying light infantry forces to break hastily-erected barricades and carry out arrests of those who had defied the monarch. While the people were prepared to tolerate a degree of reprisal for the Traders' Rebellion, Lockstrong took it far too far. He decreed that all those that had been involved would be put to death in the most barbaric fashion, including their familes. He also decreed that all those who had failed to act to suppress the rebellion were guilty by association, and that he would kill one in ten of those people in order to establish that collusion has consequences. This last was too far, and his personal guard set upon him at night and slew him. All involved in the rebellion were pardoned in the general amnesty which followed, and the council of business leaders was re-established quickly following Lockstrong's death. It was, however, too late. The poison of monarchy had seeped deep into the Tomsimite conciousness. Lockstrong's innumerable illegitimate offspring each declared themselves his rightful heir (he had no legitmate one) and rallied supporters to their standard. There was briefly the risk of a multi-sided civil war, which was foreclosed only when the ruling council agreed to pay off the contenders for the throne. One, however, was not so easily dissauded. Covonion d'Lockstrong was born in Raven, the result of one of Lockstrong's pre-monarchy dalliances with a Ravenite princess. Too far from the throne of Raven to countenance any hope of acquiring that throne, Covonion was determined to claim the throne of Tomsim. Rallying to his standard disaffected landsmen from the hinterlands as well as seafaring types of dubious repute, Covonion launched a campaign of piracy and attrition up and down the Tomsimite coast. Landing over ten thousand troops in the northern port city of Fairkin, Covonion declared it to be his new capital and set about an ambitious program of public works, funded primarily by "donations" from Ravenite allies. There were rumours that the crown of Raven itself was funding his campaign, in order to keep the ambitious rabble-rouser safely outside the kingdom. Determined not to see another despot established so soon, the ruling council mustered a militia force and marched overland to Fairkin, intending to deal firmly with Covonion. They did not. Part of the "public works" had been the establishment of extensive defensive earthworks and ramparts to prevent the primitive infantry of the Tomsim Militia from launching a successful attack. Faced with the pinnacle of Ravenite military engineering, the militia dug in for a siege rather than risking an assault. While the siege initially seemed futile, the ruling council had not been sitting on their hands. A substantial package of tariff changes and trade agreements was established in secret, with a codicil requiring the support of the Ravenite navy in blockading Fairkin. Six heavy frigates and escorts arrived almost as soon as the ink was dry on the agreement, and Covonion's lighter cogs and caravels were entirely unsuited to pitched battle against the Ravenite squadron. Faced with inevitable defeat, Covonion attempted to break the siege on the landward side, launching a desperate and ultimately futile assault on the militia lines. At the last he was slain on the field of battle, and with him died the hope of Tomsimite monarchy. The threat of the crown was never to recur, but the damage, alas, was already done. The enormous building projects of Lockstrong and his son placed vast burdens upon the Tomsimite purse, and the city of Tomsim bore the greatest brunt of these depredations. Emboldened by the new trading treaty, Ravenite merchants began to take over more and more of the Tomsimite carrying trade, culminating in an agreement in 1598 which permitted only Ravenite vessels to carry out the lucrative perfume trade with Adele and the cities of what would eventually be the Merrovian Empire. Steadily, the money began to run out, and one by one the great trading houses began to collapse. While most of them were able to maintain at least a facade of wealth, the vast fortunes that had supported art and culture to a height unknown in the human world faded into nothing. In 1760 the Sarcelle Dike was breached in a vicious winter storm, and the innundation swept away thousands of homes before emergency teams and powerful wizards were able to make temporary repairs. Faced with enormous costs to repair the Sarcelle Dike as well as collateral damage to the New Dike, now almost five hundred years old, the ruling council instead elected to abandon the South Bank. Lacking funds to recompense those who would see their businesses destroyed and be left homeless, an inventive solution was put forward. Using a complex magical device, each building was imbued with the ability to float. A sophisticated anchoring system was developed and installed, and the Sarcelle Dike was breached in a controlled fashion, allowing the entire South Bank district to float over the newly-restored Po Estuary. Using the money saved to carry out repairs to the New Dike, the ruling council were able to stave off total disaster. However, the flooding of the South Bank was not an unalloyed success. The need for barges, lighters and innumerable other small craft overwhelmed the shipyards of Tomsim and the world, and the factories that had been the last remaining economic bright spot of the Tomsimite economy simply could not cope. Unable to bring in raw materials or distribute their products, they folded, taking hundreds and thousands of workers out of employment. Within ten years, the South Bank had changed from an economic powerhouse into a flooded slum, a haven for criminals, smugglers and pirates. Modern age Modern Tomsim shows the damage of the past. The South Bank remains a lawless hive of scum and villainy, floating atop its ancient chains. The water beneath the district is filthy and home to disease, pestilence and numerous savage humanoids, who eke out a desperate existence literally from the underbelly of the city. The New Town remains relatively prosperous and popular with tourists and merchants, but the Old Town is a cutthroat snakepit of a place, as once-wealthy families plot and scheme against each other. Denied the wealth that once flowed through the city like the waters of the river, the nobles and merchant-kings of the Old Town now prey on each other, in a internecine conflict that spans centuries. Blood feuds, ancient slights and long-forgotten wrongs drive the constant, and constantly polite, warfare of the "old-money" families. The city, and by extension most of the country, is still run by the "ruling council". Officially consisting of the heads of the wealthiest families, it is in fact made up of the heads of those families perceived to be the wealthiest. To this end, lavish parties and balls are as vital to holding power in the city as military or industrial power. Geography Tomsim is situated on the estuary of the River Po, mostly on recovered ground that would otherwise be part of the flood plain. The establishment of several dikes has created a lagoon in which the city can rest, and forms a natural harbour to maximise the flow of trading ships in and out of the many docking jetties and cargo piers that dot the ocean-facing edge of the city. Climate A temperate climate dominates in Tomsim, with warm but not scorching summers and mild but often snowy winters. The typical winter will see six to ten snowstorms, each dropping between six and eighteen inches of snow, but the milder days between the storms usually mean that the snow is easily cleared. Thunderstorms are a daily occurence in late summer, and the spring floods of the Po cause annual concern lest this be the year that the dikes and levees are breached. So far, Tomsim has been lucky. Government The official government body of Tomsim and, by extension, of the country, is the ruling council. This administrative body has no more formal name, and its membership is selected from the heads of the wealthiest families of the city. This, according to Tomsimites, is the best possible course of government since the wealthiest families are those who have proven their capacity and those most likely to make the choices that will improve the lot of all Tomsimites - after all, a rising tide lifts all boats. In practice, the members of the council are the heads of those families believed to be the wealthiest, and a great deal of effort is spent by all politically-astute families to ensure that, regardless of their true financial positions, an appearance of conspicuous wealth is always maintained. That is why, throughout the Social Season (spring to early autumn) balls are a nightly occurrence in the Old Town, each striving to outdo the previous one in displays of lavishness and flamboyance. Day-to-day management of the city is carried out by the civil service, perhaps the oldest such human organisation. Entrance into the service is permitted only by competitive examination, and ancient traditions of independence and integrity guard the process, preventing even the most determined nepotist from forcing the incompetent into the ranks of the service. While the service therefore attracts the brightest Tomsimites, regardless of social standing, they are rapidly captured by the rigid, inflexible bureaucracy which prevents even the slightest change to established procedures. Economy While a shadow of its former self, Tomsim is still a spectacularly prosperous city, with a powerful economy based almost entirely on merchant shipping. Other industries include fishing, tourism and a thriving glass-blowing trader, but all of these - any one of which would be another nation's chief industry - are mere bagatelles compared to the value of the shipping trade. Vast warehouse complexes support enormous stone cargo jetties, atop which legions of stevedores, longshoremen and other dockworkers ply their trade and keep the world's economy moving. Serving mainly as a transshipment and clearing-house, Tomsim does support substantial trade with the interior. While the Landspine itself is better served by Raven and its river network, the Tomsim hinterlands trade almost exclusively with the Big City, Taxation in Tomsim is a complex and complicated endeavour. Each citizen is required to complete a tax return each year, detailing their income, any permitted deductions, and any exceptional circumstances which might alter their tax liability. The most recent revision of the Tomsim City Tax Code cut down the length of the code by almost five percent - it is now a mere sixty-one volumes long, consisting over over ten thousand sections. Tax lawyers are among the most highly regarded of the Tomsimite intellectual elite, and a good tax lawyer can reliably reduce his client's tax burden to zero with only a few weeks of work. The result is that the vast majority of the city's income instead comes from customs charges and excise duties, along with punishing taxes on those too poor to afford tax lawyers. Transportation Tomsim is a city of boats and bridges. Estimates of the number of boats in the city range from twenty to thirty thousand, a number subject to constant revision as boats are built, sunk, raised, repaired, beached, refloated, stolen, returned, burned and rebuilt. These boats range in size from single-person dinghies, little more than a shell to keep the water out, up to the huge ocean-going merchant galleons capable of carrying hundreds of tons of cargo to far-distant ports. As of the most recent survey, there are one hundred and eighty-two permanent bridges in Tomsim, the majority of them running between the New Dike and the South Bank. There are no official estimates of the number of temporary crossing structures. Sport The most popular sport in human-dominated areas of Tomsim is river hockey, a form of polo played in kayaks between two teams of ten. The inflated ball is thrown from one player to another using the double-ended paddle, and points are scored by getting the ball into a net at each end of the field. Considered a "full contact" sport, river hockey can be a dangerous game to play, although changes to league rules have finally illegitimised the practice of mounting ramming prows on kayaks, and "deliberately" sharpening the edges of one's paddle is also now against the rules, if it is used in hand-to-hand combat. These changes mean that in the most recent season, there were only six deaths and less than fifty serious injuries. Education Universal free education for children was established by Lockstrong the King in the first years of his reign, and remains perhaps the only positive remnant of his legacy. Schools are funded by the government from a specific tax levied against the import and export duties charged on wool, and Tomsimite education is widely regarded as both effective and broad, training children to face the rigours and challenges of city life. While private or specialised school do exist, and are popular in non-human communities, over nine in ten of Tomsim's children attend a government school. The most prestigious seat of learning in the city is the Old University, so called to distinguish itself from the New University. The Old University is situated in New Town, where it provides the brightest children an education designed to prepare them for either a life of trade or for entry into the civil service. The New University was established in the mansion of a family that fell from grace harder than most, and occupies most of a block of the Old Town. The New University focuses on preparing its students for the rough-and-tumble of commercial competition, although it also has a widely respected magical research facility. The New University was responsible for the design of the device that was used to cause the South Bank to float. Demographics Tomsim the city is a primarily human settlement, with relatively few non-humans. There are two principle exceptions - the first is the large halfling encampment on the east side of the city which serves as an interface between the city proper and the roaming trade caravans of the hinterlands. The other is the substantial non-human population that dwells under the floating district of South Bank. Lizardmen are the primary group under the city, but repeated reports of skum and troglodytes, especially near the harbour, suggest that the lizardfolk are not alone under there. These water-dwelling communities utterly refuse to acknowledge the authority of the surface government, and after repeated disasters in attempting to evict them, the government appears to have moved to a non-confrontational strategy. Both the elves and the dwarves maintain diplomatic missions in Tomsim, but neither race has large populations here. Half-orcs are not as common in Tomsim as they are in Raven, but neither are they unknown. They typically live in enclaves near the docks, where they ply their trade as dockers and longshoremen, their natural strength allowing them to work considerably more efficiently than their human brethren. Culture As the oldest continuous human settlement, Tomsim claims to be the source of all human culture. This is a claim that no other human nation officially accepts, but even a cursory glance over the history of human cultural endeavour makes Tomsim's primacy clear. The greatest playwrights, authors, composers, artists and sculptors all either came from or worked in Tomsim, and even to this day Tomsim boasts more museums, art galleries and music venues than any other city. In his seminal work, Culture of the River City, Talfryn the Unfortunate writes: "If a man spent every waking hour, of every day, for ten years, seeking only to pass through the libraries and the galleries and the museums of Tomsim, I say to you he would pass through not one half of them, and in so rushing hither and thither, miss out forever on the greatest sights any man could see. The great portrait ''Woman Upon A Hill, for instance, secluded in a corner of the Morel Institiute Museum. That marvellous landscape Wherever I Wander, wherein the great master Gondovallo captures in a single, vast canvas all the homesickness of one banished from their beloved home. I myself have spent countless hours ensconced in a reading room of the great Otrusican Library, leafing slowly through the plays of Swidnow, the novels of Harlikin, the comic monologues of Ficks. For any person of culture, the only regret that Tomsim will bring is that no life is long enough to see it all."'' Literature Among the many achivements of Tomsimsite culture, perhaps their greatest claim to global influence is in the art of writing. Tomsim was the original home of the stage play, and established many of the cultural expectations of such a medium, including the significance of costumes, the importance of symbolism and the role of the audience as willing participant in the suspension of disbelief. Ask five Tomsimites who is the greatest Tomsimite playwright, and you'll get ten different answers. Another area of unquestioned Tomsimite dominance is in the field of novel writing, especially the "great" or "epic" novel, typically running to more than fifty thousand words. These novels generally regale the reader with a tale of the early days of Tomsim, after the construction of the Sarcelle Dike but before the reign of Lockstrong, during a time even now longed for and looked back upon with nostalgia and envy. Most of these tales are designed to illustrate a simple moral lesson, such as "Respect your elders" or "don't walk along the dike while drunk", but more modern authors are experimenting with the form, writing tales in which the righteous do not always triumph and evil deeds are not subject to immediate karmic repercussions. Whether these works are a vital evolution of the form or a terrible disgrace to the traditions of the Tomsimite writing culture is a question fiercely debated. Art and printing The artists of Tomsim are famed the world around for their understanding of light and colour. Following the Representationalist school revolution between 1400 and 1450, a new style of portraiture became incredibly fashionable - portraits designed to represent a person, rather than depict them in some stylistic way. The idea was that even a picture which illustrated a person's less-beloved features could be treated as a work of great beauty if it accurately represented them. In collusion with some of the most gifted sculptors of the age, artists such as Gondovallo and Boffrand developed an entirely new style of art, focusing on concepts of perspective and depth, attempting to create on a flat surface an impression of three-dimensionality. Boffrand's most famous work, At The Counting Table, represents perhaps the pinnacle of the Representationalist school. The intricate detail of the money and the ledgers, the harried looks on the clerks, the exquisite detailing of the paintings on the walls in the image - all these come together to produce a feeling of depth, as if one could step through the frame and enter into the counting house of the Pelletier family as represented on the canvas. Another aspect of Tomsimite speciality is their development of the printing press. Despite the fact that the best way to copy a book is through the use of magic, Tomsimite artists continued to experiment with the press, eventually creating a new form of art, wherein intricate designs are pressed onto thin silken sheets, and then bound together. Different colours printed on different sheets combine together to create brightly-coloured artworks, and these silken creations are fiercely sought after by collectors. Particularly skilled printers are retained by the richer merchant houses to produce works on an almost constant basis, to ensure that none of their patrons have to face the shame of displaying the same creation twice. Tomsimite gothic architecture The architectural design known as "gothic" was first developed by Tomsimite architects working on the construction of the temple complex of Moquol, god of trade and industry. Determined to create something new and distinctive, the chief architects employed a vast number of stonemasons to create the complex, interlocking designs that typified the gothic style. Determined that the temple complex should not rely on magical support, both the flying buttress and the rib vault were developed to support the enormous structure of the central hall of the complex. The largest stained-glass windows ever made were installed and became a tourist attraction, with attempts to replicate the design as far away as Raven and Merrow. Rocaille architectural style As the Gothic period began to fade, a new school called "rocaille" began to gain momentum. Described as "exuberant" or "innovative" by contemporaries, rocaille architecture relied on extravagance and excellence, bringing painters and sculptors into the architectural process. The best example of this period remains the Great Hall of Trade, the central trading house in the New Town. Designed by the greatest exponent of the rocaille style, Hugo Patron, and considered by him to be both his greatest achievement and his life's work, the Great Hall required, for the duration of its ten-year construction, the services of over a thousand painters, five hundred expert or master carpenters, two hundred and eighty stonemasons and "all ye students of ye College of Art, for which we paid two shillings a day". Glass Often overlooked in terms of revenue generation, Tomsim remains one of the largest producers of non-magical glass in the world. The glassworks are mostly found in Old Town, where they represent the only socially-acceptable form of industry for the wealthier families. Tomsimite glassmakers produces glass for many purposes, including glazing, bottling, and stained-glass panels for temples and decoration. Tomsimite glassblowers are famed the world over for their craftsmanship and artistry, and "Tomsim" brewing and distilling equipment is a vital tool of any self-respecting alchemist. Festivals There are three major festivals that anchor the Tomsim calendar. The largest of these is Carnivale, held every Midsummer, which is a week-long festival beginning with a march of the pious on a pilgramige between the notable religious sites of the city, and concludes a week later with a huge debauched party on the Great Dike, during which over ten thousand gallons of wine are consumed. Carnivale is steeped in mythology and tradition, including the wearing of masks, feasting with family members, and a floating parade down the Po. Each year, hundreds of barges are floated down the river, each decorated and packed with revellers. The first barge to reach the westernmost bridge is traditionally greeting with bags of gold, meaning that each year's parade is a combination of a floating party and a drunken boat race. The other major events are the twin festivals of Pente and Voussure, held a month before and a month after Midwinter. Each festival is intended to be the reverse of the other - during Pente, families gather wearing sombre clothing and share quiet meals, followed by the giving of practical gifts intended to indicate the seriousness of the giver's feelings. During Voussure, however, it is important to wear the most riotous clothing possible and gather with friends and strangers, giving gifts intended to be as random and unpredicatable as possible. Both Pente and Voussure are treated as religious holidays, and shops, trading houses and other businesses close for the day. Music Musicianship is a highly-regarded art form in Tomsim, and at least a passing capacity with an instrument is considered essential for any person of social standing. While most never venture much further than childhood lessons with the piano, guitar or lute, many Tomsimites continue the practice of music-making into adulthood, making it the most popular hobby in the city. The manufacture and sale of musical instruments is a significant local industry, although regional prejudices prevent the instruments from being widely exported. The orchestra The Tomsim City Orchestra was established in 1785 as a privately-funded venture by a philanthropic business leader looking for a way to give back to the community. Given the popularity of musical expression among Tomsim's upper crust, it was an immediate success, and a concert hall was quickly established by popular subscription. Despite wars, invasions, plagues and famines, the orchestra has remained an indefatigable institution of the city, playing weekly concerts through the summer in the Concert Hall before retiring to a number of winter retreats to rehearse and recuperate. One of the most effective displays of copious wealth in the constant game of flashiness that defines Tomsimite politics is the ability to summon the orchestra from its winter lodgings to perform. Cuisine As a costal city, it is unsurprising that seafood is the centre of Tomsimite cuisine. Lobster and shellfish are particular delicacies, and entire fishing fleets are dedicated to the pursuit of the double-sided clam, a mollusc claimed to be of such surpassing deliciousness that a master chef can produce from them a dish fit to make brave men cry. While fish are a popular foodstuff, visitors are encouraged to see out restaurants serving zaratan. These vast, island-sized turtles are captured only infrequently, and their meat is considered to be of such exceeding quality that the arrival of a zaratan-laden ship is greeted with special celebrations. Fashion and shopping Among the wide avenues of fashionable New Town can be found countless tiny boutique shops, each one the vendor for a master clothier, Dressmakers, shirtmakers, trouser-makers and cobblers all maintain their fiercely-guarded shopfronts, through which they can sell the fruits of their labour, and from where flows the couture that clothes the rich and powerful throughout the world. Even the queen of the elves has been seen wearing a Tomsim gown. Visitors to the city are encouraged to enjoy the shopping districts of New Town, but are equally advised to avoid lingering in the more rough-and-tumble versions to be found on the South Bank. While the South Bank is by far the superior place for those searching for wares of... questionable legality, it is also infested by that class of society that enjoys acquiring new possessions but feels no need to part with their own money to do so. Notable people As befits the oldest and greatest of cities, Tomsim has been the birthplace or the workplace of some of the greatest inhabitants of the globe. A non-exhaustive list of those magnificent people follows. *Baudouin Morel, credited as the founder of the city. *Augutus Femello, discoverer of the _cure_ spell. *Eric Cholmondeley-Featherstonehaugh (pronounced Chumley-Fanshaw), inventor of the repeating crossbow and pioneer in specialised crossbow ammunition. *Davrosa Dalekia, courtesan and painter, famed for her self-portraits through which she documented the rise and fall of Lockstrong, first and only King of Tomsim. *Francisco de Maya, inventor, painter and sculptor, whose works are still sold for fabulous sums throughout the world. First person to speculate on non-magical methods of flight. *Gertrude van Rivello de Ventress la Po, magical researcher and creator of magical items. Credited with the discovery of *Hirris of the Sharpclaw Clan, renowned lizardfolk playwright. His plays are regared by the intelligentsia as the pinnacle of lizardfolk culture, and are still performed in South Bank theatres to this day. *Hugo Tanataro Illys, halfling merchant caravan leader and founder of the Tanataro trading empire. *Librarium, the fabled wizard-priest whose true name has never been revealed. Discoverer of a wide range of divine and arcane magics, he is especially associated with his work into weaponised elemental damage, including the development of _delayed blast fireball_ and _explosive runes_. *Marcello the Vinter, halfling winemaker and vineyard owner, credited with the development of sparkling wine. *Osigilious, a powerful sorcerer and learned scholar, discovered after his death to have in fact been an ancient dragon in human disguise. Best known for his inspired translations into Common of the Draconic poetry and sagas of the pre-Dawn War period. *Quentin Savant, merchant prince and the first major adopter of insurance. His Positive Assurance Company is still the largest insurance company in the world, offering everything from coverage against pirate attacks on merchant shipping to insuring the contents of a wealthy family's vault against thieves, disaster and dragon attack. *Rogers the Bold, most famous of the Pirates of the Long Isle. A swashbuckling buccaneer, Rogers and his flotilla raided shipping indiscriminately for sixteen years, until at the last he was betrayed by his first mate and executed. *Smithwick Hurtucle III, master shipwright. Credited with the development of the square-rigged galleon which was the source of Tomsim's enormous wealth, Hurtucle was also behind the development of the schooner rig, as well as the sponsor behind the development of the Bourseiller Process, which enabled coppering of wooden-hulled ships. International relations The history of Tomsim's international relations could themselves fill several books, but a brief summary of the current state of affairs will suffice. The most significant foreign actor in Tomsimite politics is unquestionably the Free City of Raven, which is both Tomsim's most deadly foe and most important trading partner. The passage of trading vessels around the southern edge of the continent is the engine that keeps the international economy moving, and any activity which might disrupt that free flow is dealt with firmly. Tomsim also maintains cordial if somewhat stiff relations with the remnants of the Merrovian Empire, determined not to permit the growing anarchy within the empire to threaten Tomsim's traditional borders. Tomsim was also the first nation to recognise the rebel province of Adele as a seperate kingdom, and remained its stern defender for centuries until it was devastated during the Mages War. Following the war, Tomsim has taken the lead in rebuilding the ravaged province. Tomsim's relations with the non-human kingdoms varies with the exigencies of national interests, at one time a loyal friend, at others an indifferent trading partner. Relations with the elven kingdom has been strained since the expulsion of all human traders from Mindon, although the fact that Ravenite traders were also expelled has allowed the ruling council to dampen demands for redress. Elves on the South Bank are advised to retain bodyguards when in public. Relations with the Landspine dwarves, on the other hand, are currently blossoming following the recent change in trading laws that have allowed Tomsimite wine merchants to sell directly to dwarven customers, rather than having to sell through the dwarf king's exchequer. While there is certainly some smuggling going on, it is widely accepted that the duties being dodged are more than made up for the much larger quantities now available for taxation. The only truly sour note of Tomsim's foreign policy is the steps it has been forced to take regarding the expansion of kobold settlements in the Landspine foothills. Following a series of harsh winters and the attendent famine in the high passes, some kobold clans have moved down onto the plains below. While these lands are outside the nebulous borders of the Tomsim hinterlands, the kobolds are nevertheless considered a threat, and Tomsim has declared the camps illegal. Currently no enforcement action has been announced, but the Tomsim Militia has been reinforced and some speculate that preperations for a campaign are underway. Tomsim maintains distant but polite relationships with the Caliphate of the Serpent. It is certainly unhelpful that the closest shore to Tomsim is utterly forbidden to outsiders, requiring those traders determined to make the voyage to sail first to Raven for resupply before crossing the Iron Sea to Sesh Virmire. Category:Cities